CVE-2026-100159
Description
The Popup Box plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Arbitrary Shortcode Execution in versions 6.4.1 to 6.4.2. This is due to the ays_popup_get_user_ip() function reading the client-controlled Client-IP / X-Forwarded-For / Forwarded / X-Forwarded / Forwarded-For request headers, sanitizing them only with sanitize_text_field() (which does not strip the bracket, quote, space, or '=' characters used by shortcode syntax), substituting the value into a popup body wherever the %%user_ip_address%% token appears (a raw str_replace with no escaping in Ays_Pb_Data::replace_message_variables()), and then passing the resulting body to do_shortcode() in Ays_Pb_Public::ays_autoembed() at output on the wp_footer hook. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary registered shortcodes with attacker-supplied attributes on the server whenever an administrator has added the %%user_ip_address%% token to a popup's Custom Content body, which can be leveraged to read arbitrary data or perform other actions exposed by shortcodes installed on the site.
Predictions
Heuristic predictions, AS-IS, for prioritization only.
Mitigations
No mitigations published for this CVE yet.
The vendor-content worker queues fetches as references arrive (check back in a few minutes). Or — if you've already worked around this in production — publish your fix to the community-verified tier.
Propose a mitigation on Community Mitigations published via the community go through AI scoring + 2 human reviewers + 7-day silent objection window before landing here withsource_tier=community-verified.
References
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.2/includes/class-ays-pb-data.php#L79
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.2/public/class-ays-pb-public.php#L3389
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.2/public/partials/ays-pb-public-templates.php#L4299
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.2/public/partials/ays-pb-public-templates.php#L4560
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.2/public/partials/ays-pb-public-templates.php#L69
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.3/public/class-ays-pb-public.php
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/535c4796-d1aa-4cd1-922e-f9dcf216f76d?source=cve
CWEs
CWE-94
Community-verified mitigations for this CVE will appear above when contributors publish them.
Verify integrity in audit chain (admin only). AS-IS.